


Protection

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Coulson is a chicken about his feelings for Skye, Coulson is afraid of losing Skye, Coulson loves Skye, F/M, Hugs, Kissing, Love, New SHIELD, Rebuilding, Sex, Stress, smiling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2014-09-01
Packaged: 2018-02-15 17:57:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2238165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlet.  Coulson compartmentalizes and Skye isn't having any of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Protection

"This is everything I didn't want for you."

It was one thing to see it on his face every day, it was another to hear him say it out loud, even if quietly.

"I _chose_ this."

"Yes, but I wanted something more for you, something better."

"What about for yourself?" she asked, shifting on the tabletop.

"I feel like I sort of earned this, Skye," he said.

"Stop it."

"What? Thirty years of my life spent in SHIELD and all along HYDRA was there, too. This is what I should be doing," he said as he cleaned the wound on her arm. "Making it right."

"You were trying to do good."

"I was. I thought I was."

He wrapped the bandage around her arm, with a guilty expression that brought back similar conversations in the past.

"I need something from you," she said, glancing over at him.

He looked down at the floor, tensed his jaw then gazed back up at her.

"What?" he asked sharply.

"I need," she said, reaching out and touching his jaw as he winced, "To see you smile again."

"I'm not sure what it would take right now. When your com link went down, I thought..."

His voice was shaking, again. She knew that he was wracked with guilt, but she suspected part of the fear of losing her was him being left to do this alone.

"And _yet_ ," she said, shifting more of her body towards him.

"Here I am. Alive."

"The team's probably celebrating," he said, changing the subject. "You should join them."

"Maybe you're not hearing me," she said. "I'm not leaving this room until... _you owe me_."

She had been pushing this for weeks, trying to get him to stop withdrawing, like he was some kind of monk paying penance while the rest of them were getting on with life.

Hopping off the table, she stood facing him with her arms crossed.

"This is not about me, Skye," he said.

"It _is_ about you. What are you holding back, Coulson?"

"Excuse me?" he said defensively.

"What gives you the right to blame yourself for all of this? A little self-righteous, isn't it?"

"You're picking a fight."

"I'm trying to get you _to talk_ ," she said, reaching her hand out towards his shoulder as he pulled away from her, stepped back.

"Don't."

The expression on his face wasn't just guilt, it was something else, a thing more desperate.

Skye sighed.

"Has to be done," she said, shrugging.

He narrowed his eyes at her then backed himself up against the table as she put her arms around him and hugged him.

" _Touch me_ , Coulson," she said, when he stood there stiffly.

As his arms went around her, she could feel him trembling.

His hands landed on her back and then he hugged her fiercly, pulling her into him.

He let go of a breath near her ear, the warmth against her neck, and then his mouth, softly on her shoulder. Not quite kissing it, hesitating.

Dealing with the weight of this, alone, was too much for both of them.

It wasn't that she was just after this, after some physical comfort. Although, if she was honest with herself she wouldn't mind that, with him.

What she wanted was all of him with her in this. His mind and his heart and his spirit and his body.

Coulson had been compartmentalizing himself.

Shutting away all the things that had gotten them this far, running on protocol and necessity, and it was too much.

Skye shifted her weight a little and he sighed a small contented sigh when she rubbed a soothing hand across his back.

What was the point in doing all of this if they were going to lose themselves in the process?

Stepping back she looked him over.

His face was still sad, but it was less strained, more relaxed.

"Still more work to do, I see."

She leaned back into him and brushed her mouth against his cheek as he closed his eyes. She kissed it.

Her eyes looked down at the hands gripping the edge of the table, white knuckled.

But what distracted her most was the impressive state of his trousers.

Well then.

Brushing her thumb along his jaw and then over his lower lip, missing the smirk she would like to find there, she waited until his eyes opened, dark, and she could see the want in them.

" _Kiss me_ , Coulson."

Reaching for her, his lips touched hers lightly, tenderly.

She took a step back.

"Is that how you've been thinking about kissing me _all this time_?" she asked, sounding disappointed.

The intense look of concentration on his face broke as he grabbed her by the waist, kissing over her cheek and her ear and her jaw, his teeth finding her neck, pressing her against him, fingers digging into her, as she groaned, breathing her in until his lips were on hers and his hot tongue was past her teeth, then tracing along the edges of her mouth, letting hers press back into his, as she pulled at his lower lip and his hands were on her hips, anchoring her to him.

"That was better," she smiled.

He was fighting a sheepish grin, trying to catch his breath.

" _This_ is even better," she said, her hands pressing against his erection and running up and down the length of him.

That elicited a small chuckle and a jolt of energy.

"Do you want me to stop touching you?" she asked.

"No, _no_ ," he smiled, leaning forward, kissing her again. "Feels too good."

"Then I think we should take this party elsewhere," she said.

"After all, we did earn this."

****

"I'm much more comfortable about you feeling guilty for _that_."

"Sorry, it's been awhile," he said, glancing over at her with an apologetic smile.

"Didn't take you for a quick trigger man."

"Okay, funnier the first time."

"Luckily," she said, "You deliver in other ways."

"And on demand," he said, biting his lower lip. "Don't forget."

" _Impossible_."

She leaned over and kissed him just below his ear on his neck and felt him shiver.

"Like that do you?"

"I...like _a lot of things_."

"Really," she said, sitting up on one elbow, hand running down his arm and then over his stomach. "I just liked you for your personality, but now I think I might like you for your body."

" _Stop_ ," he said, laughing.

"You're hot, boss man. Learn to live with it. _I_ certainly will."

He made a slightly pensive face and tugged her gently so she was leaning over him and he was looking up.

"I'm sorry," he said. "For how I've been treating you."

Pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, he said. "I didn't think you would ever want this, and I was trying so hard to stop thinking about it, stop wanting it as a comfort."

Skye drew her hand up to his face and smoothed out the lines on his forehead with her thumb.

"There is nothing easy about this," she said. "But, I never signed up for that. I'm willing to put in the work. But, I'm not willing to do it alone."

"And you were right," he said. "I was fighting the wrong things all along. Slipping back into old patterns."

"To protect yourself?"

"To protect you from _me_."

"You mean, the _old you_ ," she said, looking down for a moment at the scar on his chest.

He nodded.

"And I am here," she said, kissing him on his chin and then his nose,"to protect you from _him_."

"Yes," he said, staring at her beautiful face, the loving fierceness in her eyes.

"My feelings for you. They've always been..."

"Yes?" she asked playfully, wriggling her body next to him.

"I just love you, Skye."

She looked pleasantly surprised, not expecting something so simple and straightforward.

"I love you, too. Phillip," she replied, brushing the tip of her finger against his lips.

She liked seeing him smile again.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
